


Be my Polaris (and guide me home)

by Mercyonmayo



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Awkward Tsukishima Kei, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff? Kinda?, It kinda doesn't make a lot of sense, M/M, Mostly just word vomit about an otp, My First AO3 Post, Not Canon Compliant, Strangely unromantic, Training Camp, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, Yamaguchi is actually pretty bold you can't tell me otherwise, enjoy, i can't believe that's a tag, oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercyonmayo/pseuds/Mercyonmayo
Summary: Yamaguchi’s ahoge wobbled as he laughed behind his hand. Tsukishima stared at it. He remembered the many times he’d wondered if that hair could pick up satellite signals. Did that boy get results from the space station? Was that the reason he always seemed to have stars in his eyes, and some sprinkled across his cheeks?Tsukishima is a disaster gay, and he doesn't know what to do about it.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 132





	Be my Polaris (and guide me home)

**Author's Note:**

> 5,000 words of awkward Tsukkiyama word vomit as my first fanfiction. What a world. Enjoy.

“Tsukki! Wake up!” a voice chirped in his ear, a hand shaking him by the shoulders. “We’ve made it to camp!” 

Tsukishima “Tsukki” Kei opened his eyes to wide copper ones. A freckled blob beamed at him far too brightly for someone wicked enough to have woken him up, like he’d done in countless sleepovers before. Those came back to Tsukishima in the span of a second, flashing in his brain as he considered the eager boy in front of him.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”' Kei yawned, tilting his head back against the stiff leather seat and closing his eyes. He prepared to sink back into an uncomfortable but safe slumber, a time spent studying the back of his eyelids.

“You have to get up, or I won’t keep giving you the dinosaur figurines I get from Hanako.” Yamaguchi said sternly. (Hanako was Yamaguchi’s younger cousin, and she often got playthings from kindergarten that she didn’t want.) Tsukishima cracked open his eyes to a dead-serious, determined expression that would not be going away anytime soon. Plus, he knew he wanted those dinosaurs.

“Fine,” he grumbled, lifting himself off the seat and blearily fumbling around for his glasses. Blurry hands reached for Tsukishima’s face and placed black frames on his nose precisely the way he liked to keep them. Yamaguchi came into higher focus, smiling kindly up at him from a very close proximity. “Better, Tsukki?”

“Nevermore,” he snapped wittily. The other boy giggled at Tsukishima’s post-waking idiocy, still uncomfortably close, as Kei unnecessarily pushed up his glasses with his index finger. “You’re not that type of crow.” he laughed. 

Tsukishima knew that. He scowled halfheartedly at him.

Their charter bus squeaked to a stop. Other team members started to wake in an orchestra of groggy yelps, yawns, and groans. A bright orange poof stirred in a corner, then launched out of its seat. 

Hinata bounced around the charter bus like a hyperactive tennis ball. “WE’RE HERE!!” he whooped. His voice gave Kei a headache. “He’s like an energetic chihuahua.” He murmured to Yamaguchi, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just with less brain cells.”

Yamaguchi stifled a snicker with his hand. “That’s mean, Tsukki.” 

“But true.”

“Well…”

Hinata woke Kageyama with a hard kick in the shins. The boy woke with a yelp and turned a murderous gaze on his partner, yelling, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, DUMBASS??!” Hinata fluffed up like a ruffled bird in response, opening his mouth to snipe back.

“Here we go,” Tsukishima mumbled, rubbing his temples. Yamaguchi made a noise somewhere between a snort and a sigh.

“SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU.” Daichi barked from the back of the bus. The feuding pair fell into a sullen silence. (Yamaguchi and Tsukishima fell quiet on instinct, but continued to snicker when they realized they were in the safe.) “Everybody pick up your bags!” Suga called, grinning charmingly. Tsukishima caught him comment something to Daichi, earning a fond smile from the team captain and a quick kiss to the top of his head when the other thought nobody was looking.

The whole team knew about their relationship. That couple was not subtle in the least. However, Ennoshita had enough mercy to hold back Tanaka and Nishinoya-- and the rest of the team would stay silent without prompting, especially when Ennoshita had the potential for bloody murder.

Yamaguchi’s ahoge wobbled as he laughed behind his hand. Tsukishima stared at it. He remembered the many times he’d wondered if that hair could pick up satellite signals. Did that boy get results from the space station? Was that the reason he always seemed to have stars in his eyes, and some sprinkled across his cheeks?

Sun-kissed, said some about his freckles. Tsukishima liked to think of them as star-kissed. Blessed constellations to trace and analyze, interpret and wonder about; Yamaguchi saw them as marring dots, like the craters on the surface of the moon.

Tsukishima thought about Yamaguchi a lot. It wasn’t something that was obvious, or evident in anything he did- perhaps, Tsukishima mused, it was not true after all, because evidence was needed for a fact- no, he could not deny it. But nobody ever asked, so he never told.

The team began to file out of the packed charter bus. Yamaguchi slid out of their cramped seating area and pulled matching bags out of an overhead seating compartment, tossing Tsukishima his. He offered Kei a grin before slipping into the aisle, nearly trampling Noya. Giggled apologies and indignant shouting echoed down the space before releasing into fresh morning air, and Tsukishima breathed in the sweet noise along with the clear sky.

They tramped over the muddy ground. Yachi squeaked with each wet squelch, clinging to a fond Kiyoko while Yamaguchi threw around smiles like gold coins. Tsukishima wanted to pick them up and admire them, hoard them all for himself, but he refrained, focusing on his rapidly dampening sneakers. Mist fogged up his lenses, and the world alternated from blurriness to a blank dewy canvas.

Once, Yamaguchi leaned over and traced a smiley face on his glasses, sparkling through the resulting drops of water. Tsukishima shot him a glare, listening for the insincere “Sorry, Tsukki!” with far too much attention, watching him scamper away like a freckled bunny.

They arrived at the decrepit cabin not even ten minutes later, dewdrops in their hair and on longer eyelashes. Tanaka had water coating his bald head, something that Tsukishima didn’t overlook. “He looks like an egg,” he murmured to Yamaguchi, who laughed as if he had made the most intelligent comment in the universe.

Coach Ukai stopped them in front of the door. “You’ll all be rooming together in groups of two to four, with the exception of Kiyoko and Yachi. Tanaka, Nishinoya, stay out of their room.”

Nobody believed their fervent nodding.

The third years immediately crammed together, Asahi looking terrified at the prospect of being third wheel but accepting it anyway. To everyone’s dismay, Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Karasuno’s terrible duo snagged another room, Narita and Kinoshita snatching Ennoshita a moment later. There were only a total of six rooms in the place, one of which occupied by the coaches, one by the girls, and most of the rest taken within the span of a second.

That’s how Tsukishima found himself standing in front of the darkest, creepiest room in the place, sunlight barely making it through the dirty windows and tattered curtains. The floor was… gouged…? Wallpaper peeled, revealing urine colored walls, and bugs skittered under the bunks, making goosebumps raise on Tsukishima’s skin. Yamaguchi shivered next to him, usually tan skin pale. “T-Tsukki, are you sure we s-should go in that room…?” He asked, voice tremoring.

“Is there anywhere else to go?” Kei responded coolly, as if he wasn’t terrified enough to run away screaming. A giant spider in the corner of the room seemed to be staring at him. “There’s a broom somewhere here, we can clean it up.”

And clean it up they did.

Tsukishima swept along the room as Yamaguchi gently coaxed bugs from their hiding places, releasing them through the window. They gave off a malicious aura as they peered up at him from Yamaguchi’s gentle hands, as if threatening to destroy everything he loved, and Tsukishima had to keep himself from yelling out a warning. 

When they were done, the place was still creepy, albeit a bit safer than before. Yamaguchi looked as if they had transformed the space into a dream home and not just a cleaner version of a horror movie set, and Tsukishima had to resist the urge to shoot him down. “It looks so much better now!” Yamaguchi crowed. 

“Yeah,” Tsukishima agreed simply, because it did. Between the two bunk beds in the room, they had been only able to salvage one. When Yamaguchi had attempted to lift the mattress of the other, he had found a writhing mass of mice. The two had been able to chase the creatures out, but neither of them were willing to sleep there.

Now, Yamaguchi clambered up the ladder to the top bunk, clumsily getting his feet caught in the rungs. He flopped on his back over the mattress and whooped, “Called it!”

Tsukishima glared with all the intensity he could muster as Yamaguchi rolled onto his stomach. Propping his chin on his hand, he shot a triumphant smirk at Tsukishima, confidence radiating from him as he singsonged, “sorry, Tsukki!”

Tsukishima tried to ignore the way his lips twitched upwards in response to Yamaguchi’s infectious Cheshire grin. He tossed up his best friend's bag, making sure it hit him square in the face. Kei smirked at the yelp Yamaguchi made in response. The freckled boy whined as he reached to cradle his nose. “Mean, Tsukki!”

“Serves you right.” Tsukishima sniffed primly. They set to making their beds. Ignoring Yamaguchi’s cries of frustration, he systematically folded his starry bedspread over the creaky mattress, slipping his one dinosaur plushie cautiously under the blankets that followed. Tsukishima’s ears felt warm and he had to fight to hold his composure through a ripple of shame. Why did he even bring the stuffed animal? So uncool.

He sensed Yamaguchi settle above him just as Takeda-sensei called for them to head to the court, located a muddy half mile away. 

The rest of the day blurred into diving drills and sprinting, the occasional win keeping them up. Bokuto and Kuroo stuck to him like glue, Akaashi trailing behind like a sort of reverse-bodyguard, as if he was protecting everyone from Bokuto and not the other way around. Kenma stories were all that came out of Kuroo’s mouth (along with criticism) and Bokuto spun around Akaashi like a satellite.

“AAaKKkKAaAaaaAsHHhiIiIiIiiIiI!” shrieked Bokuto for the millionth time, and Kei was _done._

__

__

“Goodbye.” He attempted to skirt past Kuroo, who grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him back. “Ohoho, were you trying to get away, Tsukki?” he showed his teeth in a shit-eating grin. “To… who’s that pinch server? The freckled one? Tadashi, was his name?”

Tsukishima did not like the way Kuroo was smiling. Or the way Yamaguchi’s given name sounded on his tongue. “First of all, don’t call me Tsukki. Second, his name is Yamaguchi.”

Kuroo saw right through him. “The one who hangs all over you?” He smirked. “The only one you let call you ‘Tsukki’?”

Tsukishima didn’t respond. His fingers twitched, a nervous tic that he couldn’t quite seem to get rid of. It was as if his body was telling him to strangle someone- which, in this situation, Kei would be fine with. He focused on Bokuto in front of him, steadying for a block.

Needless to say, he missed.

“Would you block better if that Yamaguchi was... _cheering_ for you?” Kuroo purred.

He choked on nothing. After a few moments of hacking, he regained control.

Tsukishima leveled the most unimpressed glare he could muster at the snickering upperclassman. Unfortunately for him, Kuroo only began to guffaw.

“BOKUTO! Look, Glasses is blushing!” The human representation _actual shit_ wheezed wildly.

Oh, fucking hell.

That was what the foreign sensation climbing up his ears was. 

Bokuto hooted (quite literally), eyebrows raised. “Who were you talking about?! Who’s this girl who has caught Mr. Stoic’s attention?” 

Akaashi sighed. “Bokuto, he’s gay.”

“Were you listening this whole time?!” Kuroo snapped to attention.

Akaashi raised one immaculate eyebrow. “No.”

“Then how did you know—“

“It’s not hard to tell that everyone in this room is, in part, extremely gay. I don't even know who is being discussed. Hinata is gay, Lev is gay, and you are one of the gayest people I have ever met, excluding Bokuto-san.” Akaashi said this all so deadpan that Tsukishima almost felt stupid. 

There was a long pause in which the only sound was the thud of a volleyball hitting the floor.

“Damn, I never thought that’s how I’d get out of the closet.” Kuroo murmured finally.

“Kenma,” Tsukishima observed.

“We’re not discussing this.”

Lev and Hinata burst into a flurry of activity. “I’M GAY?!” Hinata shrilled. 

“Kageyama.” noted Tsukishima dryly.

Before Lev could even open his mouth, Kuroo spoke. “Yaku.”

Another pause in which Lev only opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. “Never thought that’s how I’d get him to shut up.” said Kuroo dreamily. “Feels nice.”

“What about me???” asked Bokuto. “Do you guys know?”

Kei made eye contact with Akaashi, who subtly shook his head. Well. He’d certainly won his respect. “Are we done talking about our feelings like girls?” Tsukishima deadpanned. “Can we play volleyball now?”

Everybody nodded mutely, silently going back to their plays. Kei thought he saw Akaashi smirk. He made a mental note to never underestimate the pretty boy again.

After that, it was all nervous plays and awkward expressions. Akaashi almost seemed to regret his statement when Yaku strode into the gym they were practicing in, demanding that Lev and Kuroo “hurry up and get their asses onto the court”, and caused Lev to burst into figurative flame. That was amusing, although embarrassing. Yaku just furrowed his brows as if wondering whether he was being made fun of and left with a harsh (but bewildered) threat.

Kei didn’t understand how something so small could have so much temper. Like an angry chinchilla. Or a Tasmanian devil.

Briefly, he wondered how the next interaction between Kageyama and Hinata would go, but proceeded to block it out of his mind. He had suffered enough second-hand embarrassment for one day.

Tsukishima was exhausted by the time curfew was announced and everyone filed into their cabins. He shuddered momentarily at the thought of their room in the dark, remembered Yamaguchi’s nightlight (that Kei himself had given to him on his fourteenth birthday), and breathed out an imperceptible sigh of relief. He opened the door, not surprised to see projected constellations gleaming on the ceiling. Big Dipper, Orion, Casseiopia.

A speckled teenager was nestled up on the top bunk. Stars shone on his skin and hovered over his freckles as if trying to illuminate the patterns in the dots, and the moon shone full outside the cloudy window as Yamaguchi looked up and smiled sweetly at him. 

“Hi, Tsukki.” The greeting came precisely on time, the pitch and tone of it interweaving perfectly with the sounds of crickets outside, which were just starting to emerge from winter. 

Spring. Yamaguchi was spring- that’s what he sounded like, that’s what he smelled like, that’s what he looked like. In the space of a stolen thought, Kei’s wondered whether Yamaguchi tasted like spring as well, feeling heat dust his ears at the impossibility of it. That was exactly what he would never get to know. Maybe he could squeeze it out of Yamaguchi’s future girlfriend.

Instead of voicing any of this, he simply mumbled “hey” and collapsed on his bunk in a mess of gangly limbs.

“You’re tired, huh.” His best friend giggled from above him. The laugh sounded like the faint tinkling of a wind chime, and it filled his head and blurred his memories in a mess of blush and soft and spring, spring, spring, spring spring spring-

“What are you mumbling about?” Yamaguchi broke him out of his reverie, peered down at him, eyes shining with something like concern.

“Hm?” Tsukishima asked.

“You were muttering about something. I don’t know what you were saying, it sounded like _sproing_ and are you okay was I not supposed to be listening o-oh my god I just eavesdropped that’s so messed up of me s-should I just mind my own business-“ The other boy ran his hands through his already messy hair in a panic, nervously rambling about nothing at all, and he didn’t seem close to stopping.

“Jesus what’s going to happen to me is this what I’ve become I shouldn’t listen to people when they aren’t talking to me that’s so awkward what if people think I’m a weirdo what if you think I’m a weirdo-“

“Yamaguchi. Breathe.” Tsukishima felt a bit of fondness stir in his gut when Yamaguchi took a much needed inhale of breath, face flushed and eyes wide in near panic. “Don’t work yourself up. It’s fine, I just got lost in thought.” He slipped his fingers under his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“O-okay.” Yamaguchi sighed, calming himself. “Do you want to play Pokémon?”

“Sure. Did you bring your 3DS?” Tsukishima ruffled around in his bag, pulling his out, as the other boy confirmed that he had. 

“Want to come up here?” the voice wafted into his ear as he fiddled with the Nintendo. “It’s nicer higher up.”

“Alright.” Kei placed his DS on the bunk with care and cautiously scaled the ladder. He had some difficulty, his lanky body making the whole thing much harder than it had to be. He stubbed his toe for the fourth time and finally splayed next to his friend, stifling his curses. 

“It’s not that hard, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi teased. “I think that someone who can block one of Ushiwaka’s spikes can handle a ladder.”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” He rolled onto his stomach and slid next to the snickering other, who flopped unceremoniously on his back with a “sorry, Tsukki” and started pressing buttons, tongue sticking slightly out of the corner of his mouth. Their sides were pressed together and Tsukishima felt the warmth seeping through his shirt far too acutely for someone who had experienced this a thousand times before. With regret, Tsukishima thought back to a time this was easy. 

“I caught a Litten!” Shrilled Yamaguchi, looking about thirty seconds from dropping his DS on his face. “I’m going to name it…”

Tsukishima peered over his shoulder just in time to see the word ‘T S U K K I’ appear. Yamaguchi pressed enter with far too much relish, cheeks washed pink with amusement, and he scowled.

Wordlessly, he swiped the screen a few times and found a Growlith. Silently, he turned the screen to Yamaguchi, who predictably dropped his DS on his face.

“You named it Yama?!” squeaked the smaller boy. His eyes were wide as Kei sniggered under his breath, and in the dark he almost missed the blush fading his freckles to red. “That’s adorable!”

Well. That backfired.

Tsukishima frowned, ignoring the warmth stirring in his chest. He snarked at Yamaguchi’s continuous flow of commentary, receiving only laughter in response. The sun set, curfew began, and Daichi pushed them to exit the game and forced Kei down to his colder, emptier bed before leaving. 

The stars shone on the ceiling, a singular solace in the creaking, shifting room. Things kept shifting in his peripheral and eyes seemed to peek from the bunk across the room. Kei attempted to close his eyes but felt paranoia swell in every time he tried. An absence of snoring proclaimed that Yamaguchi was still wide awake, gentle catching of breath promising that he was just afraid as Kei was.

A cycle of glorified blinking circled for a while as the hours ticked by, and Kei was exhausted. He was going to be miserable tomorrow if this continued. Tired desperation clawed at his mind and he shivered with his tiny stuffed dinosaur, wishing for something more effective, wishing for sleep-

“Tsukki?” a whispered voice broke through the silence, soft and nervous and croaky with lack of use. “Can I… um, can I come down there? I can’t sleep, I’m so sorry for bothering you it’s okay if you don’t want to, I’ll be fine-“

“Fine,” Kei groaned.

“...what?”

“Hurry up before I change my mind.”

Yamaguchi appeared at his side, loose limbed and sleepy, and gingerly curled up under his covers. His excess body heat filled the small space between them, warming him to the bone. Yamaguchi was stiff and tense at first, then relaxed and sleepy.

Tsukishima drifted into a memory, half asleep and calm.

-0-

_Kei and Yamaguchi were twelve, curled up outside on a blanket with Mr. Tsukishima’s telescope under the stars. “Look, there’s Cassieopia!” Whispered Yamaguchi. “And the Huntsman- ooh, I see The Virgin over there.” Kei nodded, slight smile pulling over his mouth as he listened to tiny youth beside him. They sat in comfortable silence until Yamaguchi spoke up again. “Tsukki, have you ever heard of adopting a star?”_

_Tsukishima frowned. “That’s nonsense. You can’t adopt a star. They’re just balls of gas and fire, and why would you adopt something that could destroy Earth at a moments notice?”_

__

__

_“It’s sentimental, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi beamed at him. “I’m going to do it.”_

__

__

_“Whatever.” Tsukishima attempted to act indifferent as Yamaguchi studied the midnight sky above him with even more fervor, eyes reflecting the sparkling lights. Abruptly, he pointed in a vague direction and announced, “that one!”_

__

__

_“You have to be more specific than that.”_

__

__

_Yamaguchi bit his lip in concentration. “I think it’s…” his finger traced an unidentifiable map in the sky before he decided, “Polaris.”_

__

__

_“You seriously chose the North Star?” Kei smirked. “That’s so cliché.”_

__

__

_“Well, I like it!” Yamaguchi beamed, undeterred. “It’s a guide! I like the idea that wherever you are, it’ll lead you back home.”_

__

__

_Tsukishima simply shook his head, incredulous at the sheer positivity of the whole thing._

__

__

_“You’re a bit too big for a star, Tsukki. You can have the moon!”_

__

__

_“That makes no sense. Stars are way bigger than the moon.”_

__

__

_“It’s sentimental!”_

__

__

_“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”_

-0-

Tsukishima wanted to turn around, smile at the other boy, even if he wouldn’t see it. He wanted to reach out, say the right thing for once, trace on the other boy’s freckles the patterns he’d memorized.

Kei fell asleep before he could lift a hand.

-0-

The first thing Kei observed when he woke up was a glaringly bright light in his eyes. Blurry and indistinct rays of sun practically stabbed his pupils, triggering a soft groan and the need to turn away. He shifted, tried to ignore, failed, and gave up.

The second thing he noticed as he fumbled to grab his glasses from under the pillow was that his left arm was numb and apparently trapped under a very heavy boulder. Closer observation (made by opening his eyes again) proved that this was not a boulder, but a person.

Tsukishima managed to put on his glasses with one hand, panic building. Disoriented, he fought to sort his thoughts.

The room he remembered from the night before was warm, deceptively soft sunlight streaming from the dirty windows and through the scrappy curtains to paint a most intimate picture.

Yamaguchi was thrown over him, head on his chest, arm and a leg wrapped tightly around Tsukishima’s legs and waist. That would have been natural— Yamaguchi was a cuddler, after all— had Tsukishima not had his hand securely under Yamaguchi’s waist, holding him tightly to his side. Heat bubbled in Tsukishima’s ears and under his skin as the other boy snuffled in his sleep, drool on his lip and hair messy, and yawned.

Yamaguchi’s ahoge tickled Kei’s nose and he quite nearly sneezed.

Getting away from the suffocating embrace would have been an issue if Tsukishima didn’t know how heavy of a sleeper Yamaguchi was. A lawn mower placed directly two inches next to his ear couldn’t wake him (Tsukishima knew from experience) and therefore most else wouldn’t do a thing.

Despite this knowledge, Kei took his sweet time shifting away. He gingerly reached over and lifted Yamaguchi’s bare arm from his waist, clinging to it for a second too long before placing it at the other boy’s side. He kicked off Yamaguchi’s leg and hopped over him. His stuffed dinosaur was on the floor, forgotten.

He picked it back up and placed it in Yamaguchi’s arms so he wouldn’t strangle Tsukishima’s pillow. Once he’d woken up to see a mangled pile of fluff in his friend’s squeeze rather than a pillow, and he sympathized with it now. Bruises throbbed under his ribcage and Kei winced as he bent down to search his bag for clothes, wishing that the freckled teen wasn’t so much stronger when he was unconscious. Why couldn’t he apply that brute strength to spikes?

“Good morning, Tsukishima!” a ridiculously motherly voice chirped from the door, nearly giving Kei a heart attack. He flicked his eyes to the door, clutching his chest as Suga blinked in concern. “Sorry for scaring you,” he said, quieter. His silvery hair was a little scruffier than usual, either courtesy of Daichi or the early morning, and sympathy welled up in Tsukishima’s gut for poor Asahi.

“It’s fine.” he promised. “What are you here to tell me?”

Suga opened his mouth. He closed it. He opened it again. “Well, the first thing was to wake you up. I sent Hinata to do that already and he came back with a frog-like expression without doing a thing...” his eyes panned to Yamaguchi, curled up on the lower bunk. “...and now I see why. The second was to wake Yamaguchi, which, well.”

Rage welled up under Tsukishima’s skin. He heard his voice take up a deadly quiet tone as he asked, “Did he have a phone?”

Sugawara spread his arms and planted himself square in the middle of the doorway. 

That was answer enough.

“I’m going to kill him,” Kei snarled, advancing. “Suga, move. I need to drown him in the lake.”

“Calm down.” ordered the silver-haired crow, albeit anxiously. “Nobody’s drowning anybody. I’ll get him to delete the photos.”

Loud cackling erupted from somewhere in the cabin, roaring through the thin walls. Kei distinctly heard Suga’s heart beat faster. It seemed that in his frenzied wrath, he had developed ancient predatory instincts.

“Not if everybody’s already seen them.” 

“Tsukishima, we can talk about this—“

“If those pictures get sent to Kuroo before I can stop them, then I will set this whole camp on fire without sparing anybody.” Except for Yamaguchi. Was the silent understanding. He meant it all. 

Tsukishima could see the wheels turning in Suga’s head. Hinata, or everyone else? After a few moments of debating, he stepped away from the door.

Kei stalked through it like a shadow demon.

What happened next was, in the simplest description of events, something that would be recurring in Hinata’s nightmares for the remainder of his miserable scuttling life. Needless to say, the photos were deleted, and with his wide selection of blackmail Tsukishima made sure nobody would ever speak of the incident again. Neither Yamaguchi nor Kuroo should, or would ever know.

Suga gave him a weak smile when it was all finished. “Please wake Yamaguchi up.”

Tsukishima just nodded, oozing with twisted satisfaction.

After years of experimentation, the blonde had learned one definitive way of waking up his best friend. 

Lifting up a hand, the bespectacled teen jabbed Yamaguchi sharply underneath his ribs on the left side and with his other hand gripped his right ankle, hard.

Kei had asked Yamaguchi about the bizarre ritual before. “I don’t know, that spot on my side is ticklish I guess.” He shrugged. “The ankle part is probably because of that ankle break I had before.

With a shrill yelp, the other boy arched upwards, a limb flailing and smacking Kei square in the chest. He didn’t even flinch.

“Wake up.” He told Yamaguchi, adjusting his goggles. Yamaguchi glared at him blearily as Tsukishima dumped clothes on his lap. “Hurry and get changed so we have free time before breakfast.”

Yamaguchi pulled off his shirt with motor skills that would disappoint a toddler. As per routine, he dragged through the first few minutes of his day with his eyes resolutely shut, only opening them when Suga came and pinched him into wakefulness.

He was clearly still angry at Kei for making him get up. Tsukishima wasn’t too shaken up about it.

That was, he wasn’t until Yamaguchi stepped in front of him and presented a still-buzzing, live cicada. 

“Look, Tsukki, I found a cicada!” He said mockingly. 

Tsukishima’s pride wouldn’t let him run as the buzzing menace was raised closer to his face. “Yamaguchi, get it away from me.” In an attempt to intimidate his friend into his usual easiness, he frowned darkly at him. Said friend was, for once, not perturbed. “No.”

“I said, get it away.” Yamaguchi held it up an inch from his arm. Tsukishima backed away. Yamaguchi followed.

Tsukishima felt his back collide with the wall. Yamaguchi closed in, uncomfortably near. The mischievous look on his face made the blonde want to either kiss him senseless or swallow his pride and flee. 

This whole situation would have been incredibly thrilling if not for the vibrating bug between them. In a way, it was still thrilling, but rather not in the manner Tsukishima would want it to be.

When the bug was a quarter inch from the skin of his bare arm, Kei finally panicked. It was too much. The sticky legs of the creature flailed, huge red eyes flashing, and Tsukishima snapped, “Tadashi, PUT IT AWAY!”

The room fell dead silent.

Yamaguchi’s eyes were wide, his mouth pulled into a hesitant half smile. He wasn’t saying a word. The cicada fell on the ground, forgotten— it didn’t chirp, as if not to disturb the quiet, and crawled to a safe corner of the room.

Kei was still pressed into the wall. He didn’t know whether he was frowning or smiling. Fuzzy static ran in his ears. Yamaguchi was still a foot away, hands held in the same position as when he had the cicada.

The sound of a crowd stomping or the slam of a drum filled his head. Thump, thump, thump, ran the metronome. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. He started tapping his foot to the rhythm just for something to do. His eyes wandered to Yamaguchi’s irises and he was relieved to see they were still copper. He didn’t know what he was expecting, that in the face of this massive screwup the world would flip on its axis and Yamaguchi wouldn’t be Yamaguchi anymore. 

The metronome still pounded. Tsukishima amused himself by playing a song in his head to it. 

As loud, heavy rock and roll filled his mind he reflected that something more romantic probably would be nice. It was hard to feel hopeful when death metal was playing in your head. But if his brain was a CD player, it was busted, and the loud clashing of drums played louder and louder until it melted into the sound of his heart again.

“We’ve known each other for years,” Yamaguchi said slowly. “And this is the first time you have called me by my given name.” He sounded shocked. Tsukishima felt mildly offended.

“Your point?” He asked apathetically.

“Could you say it again?”

“Why would I—“

“Say it again.” Determination sparked in Yamaguchi’s eyes, the same kind as when he was about to attempt a tricky receive or a particularly difficult jump float serve. Tsukishima stared him down for a few moments before accepting that he was not getting out of this.

“Tadashi,” he said quietly, spiteful but savoring each syllable. 

Yamaguchi’s eyes slowly lit up. “I never thought this would be the situation you’d say it in, you know.” A shy smile graced his face, along with a pink blush. Tsukishima stared breathlessly as he continued, “my saying this, um, it could end really badly, but you’re not going to say it first, so, erm, I always figured it would be a lot more… romantic?”

“That wasn’t romantic at all.” Tsukishima was surprised at how simple and abrupt he could make the words sound even as his ears practically sizzled. “Honestly, if there was any chance of it being so you stomped on it.”

“We could try it again?” The tone was hopeful.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” The freckled teen’s face fell. He tucked his hands in, took a step back—

“I like you.” 

Yamaguchi froze.

Tsukishima pretended that his internal organs weren’t having a wrestling match inside his body and pasted on a sardonic, shit-eating smirk. “Why do you look so surprised? It’s not as if you didn’t know.”

“You indirectly told me a minute ago.” Yamaguchi’s voice didn’t match the brightening of his eyes, the beginnings of a grin tracing his mouth. 

“Not the point.”

“I like you too, Tsukki!”

“Truly? I had no idea.” (A tidal wave of euphoric relief swept over him. Kei reflected, for the hundred-twenty-seventh time, that he was an asshole.)

There was a pause.

“So…?” Yamaguchi fiddled with his sleeve. “Are we boyfriends?”

The idea sent Tsukishima into overdrive. He resisted the urge to put his face in his hands and scream in overwhelmed gay. “I guess so.”

“...can I call you Kei?”

Sharp inhale, a step back into a solid surface, a wave of heat enveloping him from head to toe. “Fine.” was all he said.

“Kei! Kei, Kei, Kei, Kei, KEI!”

“Shut up, Tadashi.”

“Make me!”

“That’s not going to make this any more romantic.”

“Maybe it will!”

“You’re literally the one pressing me into the wall.”

“Shut up, Kei!” (he sounded giddy about being able to say that. They were weird, thought Tsukishima. He didn’t care.)

“Make me.” he tried out the words.

He learned a few seconds later that kissing felt nice, especially when Yamaguchi was doing it. He also learned that Hinata chose the worst times to call people for breakfast. 

Whatever, it was fine. He had Tadashi and their strangely unromantic relationship now. Tsukishima wasn’t sure if anything could make him unhappy ever again. 


End file.
